1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nucleic acid amplification primer which is used for nucleic acid amplification of carcinoembryonic antigens, a nucleic acid amplification primer set, and methods for assisting cancer diagnosis.
2. Description of the Related Art
Carcinoembryonic antigen (hereinafter referred to as CEA) is a glycoprotein discovered as an antigen substance which is commonly present in colonic cancer and children's colonic mucosa and one of the most-used tumor marker in recent years. CEA is expressed in various types of cancers such as rectal cancer, colonic cancer, gastric cancer, esophagus cancer, lung cancer, mammary cancer, liver cancer, biliary tract cancer, pancreas cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, scrotal cancer, cervix cancer, cancer of uterine body, cervical cancer, and ovarian cancer. Detecting expression of CEA as a tumor marker can provide an indication of cancer diagnosis and followup after operation or treatment such as chemotherapy. Usefulness thereof has been recognized. A method of specifically detecting the expression of CEA, i.e. a tumor marker, is a method (genetic screening) for detecting mRNA of CEA gene (hereinafter referred to as CEAmRNA).
As a primer set for detecting CEAmRNA by genetic screening, a primer set described in US20040175729 is known. The primer set which may be used for the LAMP method or the RT-LAMP method includes two kinds of inner primers (FIP and RIP), two kinds of outer primers (F3P and R3P), and two kinds of loop primers (LPF and LPR).
The above-mentioned primer and primer set can specifically detect CEAmRNA, however the reproducibility of detection is not described in US20040175729.